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When people think about visiting California, they think about hitting up places like Los Angeles or San Francisco. If they’re going to be a little off the beaten path, maybe they’ll head over to San Diego or Malibu. But there are so many more little hidden gems in California – like Santa Barbara.

This weekend, I spent an entire day in Santa Barbara. Usually I’d just pass it by on a drive from SoCal to The Bay. Maybe I’d make a stop to check out the pier and grab some food, but I’d never dedicated time to spend there. But, this weekend, I found out that there is so much to do there! Being from Hawaii, there are four things that we do when we explore: eat food, go on hikes, chill at the beach, and check out the views. Santa Barbara had all of these, so I was all about it.Continue reading …

I’ve been missing my hiking days back home just a little bit, so I’ve decided to write this blog post about one of my favorite waterfall hikes back home on Oahu: Likeke Falls.

This is probably one of my favorite hikes because the effort-to-payoff ratio is pretty good. You hike (or walk slightly uphill) for a solid twenty minutes, and there is a nice-sized waterfall there for you. No, it’s not the skyscraper-tall Manoa Falls waterfall, but it’s not the lame Waimea Falls that all of the tourists are told to go see. Likeke is a nice balance, and that makes it a great hike for kids! Almost every time I’ve gone, I’ve seen a few kids there, playing in the little pools beneath the waterfall.

I absolutely love beaches. When you find one that you like, it becomes the perfect place to escape from the crowds, the stress, and the worries of life. It becomes an amazing getaway, just like the beach I wrote about in my very first post. However, even though I’ve gone to school in Southern California for around a year now, I still hadn’t found my perfect getaway beach. Until now.Continue reading …

Thousands and thousands of tourists come to the Hawaiian island of Oahu each year. However, most of the time, they end up spending most (if not all) of their time at tourist traps. Here are five tourist traps on Oahu, and some alternatives, so you can actually experience some local favorites.Continue reading …

It was July 18, 2017, and we had just docked at Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. We headed on the bus – all four of us – with several others and our guides, Claude and – well, I don’t remember what the other one’s name was. I only remember Claude, because he was telling us all a bunch of lies, like how the trees in Nova Scotia turn blue in the fall or that he met Charles de Gaulle and he was nearly seven feet tall. Lies.

After an hour and a half of Claude and what’s-his-name’s nonsense, we reached our destination: the trailhead to Uisage Ban Falls.

I’ve always thought that my blog was different from the thousands of other travel blogs out there. My goal has been to try to show the adventures that you can have in every day life, not just when you leave your home. I’ve been convinced that every single city, town, or village out there has something to do.

But then I went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and my belief was put to the test.

This past weekend, a group of my friends and I spontaneously decided to road trip up to the Bay Area, just because we felt like it. We did it “for the lols” – and I didn’t regret it for even a second. So here are just a few reasons to take a spontaneous road trip.Continue reading …

Last week, the new International Market Place opened in Waikiki. Now, before I went, I didn’t have high expectations. I just expected it to be another shopping mall with the same old stores, but, I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Hawaii is always described as a melting pot of different cultures, but, let’s be real, it’s always thought of as a melting pot of Asian cultures. I’ve even written quite a bit about the influence of the Asian cultures in Hawaii in my posts on Chinatown and the Japanese Byodo-In Temple. However, there are other cultures in Hawaii that, while they have smaller populations, have an influential presence, like the Greeks. Just this past weekend, Honolulu’s annual Greek Festival took place at Ala Moana Beach Park, and, as precedented by years past, my family and I stopped by.​

…so this isn’t really how the hike started, but wouldn’t it be cool if it started with this awesome tree arch?!…

Monday morning, I woke up to a bunch of texts and phone calls from some friends telling me that they were going to hike Manoa Falls that morning. I’d wanted to go on a hike the entire summer, but it just hadn’t happened. But that day, it was going to happen.